Tuesday

Matthew 13: 44 – 45

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.

How can we understand the kingdom of heaven, with our earthly minds and bodies incapable of knowing the mind of God? We understand the kingdom of heaven cannot be bought with money or earthly goods, but how, then, is it obtained?

Jesus makes a picture for us by describing the response when the kingdom of heaven is found.
When we find it, we respond with joy, recognizing its incomparable value and seeking it with our all. No hesitating, no price negotiations, no holding back. Joyfully, we seek it with our whole heart.

If this is not our response, we have to ask ourselves why not? Have I not yet found it, or do I value something else more?

Jesus wants us to understand that the kingdom of heaven is worth more than anything else; actually it is worth more than everything else we could possibly have or desire. And, he tells us that when we give our all for it, it will be ours. No matter how little we have to give, when we want the kingdom of heaven more than anything, and seek it with our whole heart, the kingdom of heaven will be ours. Jesus made it so.

CK

Monday

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

We often “swallow” life to keep things the way we want them to be. Whenever we’re anxious or nervous, without even thinking, our hands reach out to put something in our mouths. Food and drink, coffee and toast. We hunger and thirst, and we don’t realize we’re not hungry for a bowl of ice cream or a glass of wine.

We are reaching for inner peace. We aren’t underfed, but we are spiritually undernourished.

During the season of Lent, you and I should have a time of fasting and a time of reflection, of looking inside ourselves. Forty days and nights we do not need, just a short time to think about the days ahead, days full of things that have never been. The answers we need shall be given as we live our lives for Christ.

Leaning on worship, study and prayer – see you in church!

BH

Saturday

Psalm 51: 10 – 19

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
May it please you to prosper Zion,
to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
in burnt offerings offered whole;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.


Have you ever had to buy a gift for a wealthy person (for Christmas, a birthday, whatever)? You know you can’t get anything the person really needs. Your hope is to get something that will touch the heart - that will show love and appreciation for the person that comes from the heart.

In the same way, the idea of offering a sacrifice to God seems absurd. The Old Testament gives instruction on offering a variety of agricultural products to God, from cattle and sheep to fruit and grain. Like God needs a steak or a guava melon. But He never needed the material item. He desired to see the willing, sacrificial heart that motivated the gift.

This Psalm makes it clear. What God desires is a broken spirit and a broken heart. This doesn’t mean that God desires our pain. It just means He wants us to recognize what is true. We are people who have done hurtful things. We have harmed others and ourselves. What God wants us to do is realize this and be honest about our brokenness before Him. That is the first step to allow God to make us whole.

Friday

Psalm 51: 1 – 9
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity.


I am imperfect by nature, and I do what is wrong on purpose. Sometimes even I cannot bear the bad things I do – which, although I might do them to others, I really do against God. I cannot change my imperfection or undo my wrong-doings.

But I can call on God when I truly regret the bad that I do, when I honestly suffer under my impurity. And God will give me the gift of deep wisdom (which is the opposite of a sinful nature). Not only that, God will restore me to a clean, pure state that I could never reach by myself. With these great gifts comes unspeakable joy.

A joyful life requires constant connection with God's loving forgiveness.



AL

Thursday

Malachi 1: 6 – 17
"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?" says the LORD Almighty. "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.

"But you ask, 'How have we shown contempt for your name?'

"You place defiled food on my altar.

"But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?'

"By saying that the LORD's table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" says the LORD Almighty.

"Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?"-says the LORD Almighty.
Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.

"But you profane it by saying of the Lord's table, 'It is defiled,' and of its food, 'It is contemptible.' And you say, 'What a burden!' and you sniff at it contemptuously," says the LORD Almighty.

"When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?" says the LORD. "Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations.

In the streets of Monrovia, Liberia, young men push brightly painted carts with the words “COW MEAT” crudely lettered on the side. For a few cents, you can buy a bite of cooked meat on a toothpick to eat. In a poor African country, without the luxury of USDA food and sanitation inspectors, your bite of “cow meat” might easily be a morsel of dog, monkey, snake, or rat. Buyer, beware!

The prophet Malachi saw the way that priests and worshippers tried to cheat God. Instead of blemish-free, perfect animals, they were trying to pass off lame and sick animals as acceptable sacrifices. Their shoddy offerings were an insult to God and to the One Who would be the perfect sacrifice for sin.

How often have we tried to substitute lazy, “it will do” attitudes in worship for the real “cow meat” of true devotion and respect to a Holy God? This “lame, diseased” offering is an insult to the “great King, the Lord of Hosts.” He takes “no pleasure” in it.

Dear God, please forgive us, for Jesus’ sake. His sacrifice was pure, unblemished, and entirely sufficient. Thank you, Lord Jesus, the perfect Lamb.

DB

Wednesday

Leviticus 1: 1 – 9

The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.

" 'If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD. He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

Our God is a God of order. He desires that His people know how to worship, and Leviticus is His instruction manual for worship.

The Israelites understood the difference between holy and common, and they were to learn there was a danger of interacting with the Holy when they were impure. The important lesson for them, as well as us today, was that the blood of the sacrifice played a critical role in cleansing impurity before the sacrifice is offered to a holy God.

Chapter 1 of Leviticus tells us about the burnt offering. First the worshiper was to present himself and his offering before the Lord. Following the slaughter, the blood was thrown on the altar to purify it. Then the animal was burned as a sacrifice, as prescribed by God.

Lent is a time set aside for us to prepare ourselves as an offering to a holy God. We are blemished by sin and only blood can cleanse our impurity. Christ made the ultimate sacrifice and offered His Blood that we might be purified as an acceptable offering before God.

EB

Tuesday

March 10, 2009

Genesis 22: 1 – 14

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you."

Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.

"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."

Do you ever wonder where the money will come from to pay the next mortgage payment or make the next rent check? Maybe you are staring at the tax forms and wondering, baffled how it came up red … and you have no idea how to turn red to black.

Perhaps you’ve considered doing something, not illegal, but just…um…questionable to make ends meet. (Okay, maybe you have considered something illegal when looking at those bills.)

Abraham was asked to do an awful thing to meet a need. Sin requires a blood sacrifice, and God told him to sacrifice his son. But ultimately, killing Isaac was the wrong thing to do and God, I’m sure, knew it.

But He asked Abraham to come to that place so that Abraham would know that it would never be necessary to do the wrong thing to meet a need because God will always provide. God will provide for you as well.